Movie of the Month-April, 2016: Punishment Park
 

With Donald Trump's run for the presidency being one of the world's biggest current stories, I thought I'd introduce a movie that shows what can happen when the wrong person is in power. Punishment Park is a mockumentary/thriller in which The United States starts a new process to bring activist and protester types to justice under Richard Nixon. This is not an attack by me against Trump, but he certainly has talked of changing laws and breaking laws, and has used the type of language that someone who would attempt radical solutions would use. People need to be very careful who they elect into power, because the events portrayed in the movie Punishment Park are not that far-fetched under the right or wrong type of leadership.

"I'd like to punch him in the face."

-Donald Trump about a protester

Re: Movie of the Month-March, 2016: Punishment Park
 

Very interesting choice Cricket! I think I've heard of this one once before, but don't know much about it. Looking forward to it!

Is it on Youtube by any chance?

Not sure about YouTube, but I put a link for Dailymotion in the first post.

Re: Movie of the Month-March, 2016: Punishment Park
 

Oh was that there before? I must've completely missed it! :p

Thanks for the link, I'm gonna be giving it a watch pretty soon. Expect a review in a week or 2!

Hope you like it; I sent Yoda a pm to fix the thread title for me:p

I've never heard of Punishment Park, and TBH, it doesn't really sound like my kind of movie, but I'll watch it anyway. I might get pleasantly surprised and actually like it. :)

Will finally watch one of these with this. Must say though Nixon was one of your better presidents; IMO the only presidents who pushed through more positive legislation in the 20th Century was both Roosevelts, Wilson and Lyndon Johnson. He was also the first president to move on the environment and made nice with China. I've never understood why he is so hated and Johnson isn't really when he was the one who expanded the Vietnam War, i get Watergate but IMO that wasn't some big atrocity if it was that he lied then i don't understand how Clinton still has a pretty good reputation today.

Re: Movie of the Month-April, 2016: Punishment Park
 

Seen it couple of years back, one of the best mockumentaries I have ever seen. :up:

I just finished watching Punishment Park, and I hate that I'm the first person to review it because it didn't really do much for me. Keep in mind that I don't really watch many documentaries, and this definitely has a documentary feel to it, so that's at least part of the reason that I didn't care for it. It also feels like a political statement, and I'm not really into politics either, so that didn't help either. Plus, it feels like it was made by the people who make the TV show "Cops", which I also don't like, so that's three strikes against it for me.

It just felt kind of long and boring to me, and it seemed to keep repeating the same stuff over and over again. It felt like I was watching a very long episode of "Survivor", but these people never even had a chance.

Obviously this wasn't my type of movie. I didn't hate this movie. It just didn't hold my interest, and it seemed to drag on too long for me, but don't let my opinion stop anyone from watching it. Remember, I hated Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, and a lot of other very popular movies too.

Thanks for trying GB:)

Re: Movie of the Month-April, 2016: Punishment Park
 

I'm going to watch Punishment Park, you were nice enough to watch my MotM film and so as soon as I can find a copy, I'll post my thoughts.

Most of Watkins' movies are cautionary political tales, or warnings, shot in semi-documentary style, about what could happen if the bomb dropped (The War Game) or fascism becomes the norm in a former democracy (Punishment Park).They also tend to have sci-fi elements. I've also seen his Privilege and Edvard Munch. Anyway, I highly recommend Punishment Park as a thought-provoking thriller which should have you screaming at your screen for one or more reasons. It's also available for free with Amazon Prime.

Thanks for the thoughts Mark, I was thinking of checking out The War Game as well.

Re: Movie of the Month-April, 2016: Punishment Park
 

Should be able to watch this in a few days. A couple things came up that's taking me a bit longer getting to it but I should be able to soon.

Re: Movie of the Month-April, 2016: Punishment Park
 

Should be watching this week, and recording the podcast on the 23rd. :)

Re: Movie of the Month-April, 2016: Punishment Park
 

Hey cricket what happened to the Dailymotion link? I'm trying to watch this now but can't find it yet.

Edit: nvm found it. Watching it now!

Goodies actually sent me a message saying that the sound wasn't in sync, so she sent me another link if anybody needs it.

Re: Movie of the Month-April, 2016: Punishment Park
 

Yeah I need it, I've been watching the out of sync vid and it's brutal. :sick:

Sent it to you

Great review False Writer and thanks for watching!

I don't think something like that would happen with Trump as president. However, everything starts out as an idea. You never know.

Re: Movie of the Month-April, 2016: Punishment Park
 

Punishment Park sounds like an interesting film. If it ever comes back to a repertory movie theatre in my area, I'd love to see it!

I doubt that it will. It's online if you want to check it out. Oh and I have not forgotten about it, I will be watching it soon.

Punishment Park is online? Okay...Thanks.

I watched Punishment Park last night, this has to be the most unique film I've ever seen. It's not like a typical movie. Back in 1971 this was pretty cutting edge stuff. What a cool choice for MoM!

I loved the documentary style of film making, especially as much of the story is told through the eyes of a British film making team, who are filming the events that we see in the film. There's something about a British narrator that lends credibility to the film.

I expected this to be over-the-top, camp, in the same vein as:
Wild in the Streets (1968)

Or even like the ridiculous, but fun:
Gas! It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It (1970)

But no, this was for it's time a very hard hitting look at the social class struggle that took place in the late 60s-early 70s between 'the man' (the older embellishment) and the younger protesters (the baby boomer generation). Some of the things the accused agitators say in this film might seem outlandish, but there were young people at the time who thought that way. Especially over Vietnam and the carpet bombing campaigns in Indochina. Likewise the older generation who were represented by the government, were leery of young anarchist and of the communist threat.

This film is a time capsule of how the two sides felt about each other. This is the time when America seen the rise of radicalized militant groups like the Black Panthers and mass protestors, and feared violent over through of the government.

In today's world such events might seem preposterous, but in 1970 this film and it's subject matter was quiet relevant.

Punishment Park looks homemade, that's by design. The actors aren't polished, they look like people off the street, and that's a strength. Any serious film buff should watch this.

Excellent choice, Cricket.

Re: Movie of the Month-April, 2016: Punishment Park
 

Podcast Saturday! Looking forward to watching this in the next couple of days. Maybe tonight.

A couple of interesting things I noticed, not complaints, but observations from a production stand point.

When the second black man an accused prisoner is being interrogated and the cops subdue him and one covers his mouth. Look closely at the make up on the cops forearms and hands. It becomes even more evident in the close ups.

Second, while the film has two opposing sides who yell and slander each other with wild accusations, take notice of how the board of interrogators take a different line of tack with one of the suspects. I'd say they were concerned about real world back lash if they didn't soft peddle what they said.

There's a subtle but efficient use of a certain sound effect that can be heard at different times in the movie.

Glad it was worth your time, CR. I thought it would be, but I had the feeling you were skeptical going in.

Re: Movie of the Month-April, 2016: Punishment Park
 

I was skeptical and I was wrong:p...the film was way cool. Weird though, I also had a playback problem, like False Writer did...Only my problem was, if I tried to pause or fast backwards the movie to see a scene again...the movie would freeze and I could not control it or even shut it off. It was locked up and I had to unplug the DVD to get it to play. But not a fault of the movie but just the way I was playing it (off a USB stick).

Oh, I thought the blond girl with the curly hair who was a popular singer, was a hoot! She cracked me up, with the stuff she said to the older lady with too much eye shadow!

Re: Movie of the Month-April, 2016: Punishment Park
 

Podcast is in the can! Good stuff. Might not get around to editing it for a few days, but should be sometime by the middle of next week one way or another.

Re: Movie of the Month-April, 2016: Punishment Park
 

Okay, might be slightly delayed still: I hurt my hand yesterday and while I can type and click a bit, it doesn't feel great. But I'm gonna try to get at least started on this today.

Take care of your hand. It's more important that you let it heal properly. We can wait until your hand is better.

http://www.greetingsisland.com/image...soon-puppy.jpg

Don't stop 'til it's finished. Pain makes you strong.

(Also are you going to be on the DL now too? Are we going to have TWO high profile SP injuries in the same season? It's Chris Paul and Steph Curry all over again!)

Pain don't hurt.

I was thinking the same thing, about the SCL! I think I should be fine in time for my next match, though (Thursday).

Re: Movie of the Month-April, 2016: Punishment Park
 

Okay, it'll be up soon! Would've been sooner but right after my hand felt better I got a sore throat and feel like I'm teetering on the edge of getting sick again. I did the basic editing though and just need to add a little production when I get home, probably this afternoon. Thanks for your patience, guys. :)

http://i.123g.us/c/gen_getwell/pc/121470_pc.jpg

Finally! Here's the podcast. Now I get to read all the posts in here! (I largely avoid them before, so I can talk about it relatively unaffected by other opinions.)

Another big thanks to Slappydavis/bluedeed (Eli/Brendan) for their insights.


The best way to get it is to subscribe with iTunes. The next best ways are to just download it with this link (or add the podcast feed into your RSS reader). Or you can just listen right now with this embedded player:



I'll see about getting this one (and all the others that follow) up on YouTube soon, too.

If you guys think Punishment Park was twice as long than it needed to be, should have had interviews or that Watkins had a hand in the creation of the mockumentary, you need to watch his The War Game from 1965. It's 47 minutes and won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, even though it was not a documentary at all. Watch it at this link.
https://archive.org/details/TheWarGame_201405